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Or Hillary Clinton. I have absolutely no interest in the subject whatsoever.
Also, when my 80-year-old Japanese friend told me they executed Sadaam Hussein and showed it on TV and children copied it, I swore off television forever again.
Can I live a productive adult life with this mindset? I'd like to, if possible.
Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
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On a mildly tangential note, it's interesting to me how so much of the 'left' and 'right' overlaps. I browse the Adbusters magazine every now and then, and durned if they don't echo what a lot of 'conservatives' say.
In answer to your question, lots of people do, quite happily.
Posts: 13123 | Registered: Feb 2002
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I think you can. There are many things I don't care about that the mainstream seems obsessed with
Me, I am coveting the fact that you went to Japan, which is the home of heart shaped konnyaku jelly cups which I want so BADLY. And also various things with the words Dir en grey on it. But I digress. Children should NOT be watching hangings on television! That was the one thing I dreaded! I am still traumatized from this soldier who got hung in Iran and they SHOWED IT. I was only SIX YEARS OLD! Gods, did that scare me. Why do they show things like that? Why? I swear the news is worse than R rated movies sometimes and when I have kids I won't let them watch it.
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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I miss not having a television. It was so nice. Sure, I wasn't watching shows like house, but I wasn't watching steaming dogcrap either.
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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Since we moved to Oregon, we don't have TV. To my surprise, I've enjoyed it instead of just not missing it.
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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I never even watched television that much in college except for X files and movies. I was so happy back then... I didn't miss it at all. But then I started watching again in 2003. Perhaps I should not have done that.
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I watched the Secret Garden instead of the Oscars. I can't imagine putting in the time and effort that it takes to actually follow what's going on.
Posts: 3420 | Registered: Jun 2002
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1: The National Geographic Channel 2: The Discovery Channel 3: The History Channel
Mrs. BlackBlade occasionally wants to watch with me and so I usually have to abandon all 3 if that happens.
I follow one TV show at a time, right now its Heroes, used to be Lost. Only other thing Ill watch on TV are movies. I love TV, but if I miss anything I can catch it on youtube. I love my cable. I didn't get national geographic with comcast and it was a crying shame!
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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When I got home from my mission, I found that some guy I had never heard of (Clinton?) had somehow been elected president, and that hair bands were dead and had somehow been replaced by something called "grunge".
Posts: 202 | Registered: Nov 2005
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I never watched Saddam's execution, but I think you should care about Hillary Clinton. You do intend to vote, right? Of course, your news source doesn't have to be (and its probably better that it isn't) television.
Posts: 1762 | Registered: Apr 2006
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Sorry I abandoned my random thought thread after posting it. Real life interrupted. And now, ironically enough, I am being interrupted by my little sister insisting that I watch her favorite commercials of the last year and a half on tivo. *dies*
Odd sensation: I have no desire to watch a movie. Just too much creepy emotion. My sister was watching the beginning of some action flick this morning and just hearing it made me ill. However; while walking around town today, I kept hearing 80s rock and natsukashii songs being played and had absolutely no aversion to it at all - I just soaked it up. Weird, huh?
Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
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Is there an official Mormon policy on television and movies, at least for missionaries? Does it extent to news channels or newspapers?
Posts: 1762 | Registered: Apr 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Euripides: Is there an official Mormon policy on television and movies, at least for missionaries? Does it extent to news channels or newspapers?
No TV or movies for missionaries. Hubby says he doesn't think they're supposed to read the newspaper either. No restrictions on "regular" Mormons (if there is such a thing).
Annie, I'll join your head-in-the-sand club. I'm a little shocked to find it on Hatrack, to be honest. I thought I was the only one here who really didn't want to have reality interfere with my world.
I only watch the news for the weather; I get all my world news reports from Hatrack. Posts: 1522 | Registered: Nov 2005
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As the blushing graemlin probably indicates you already know, membership in the head-in-the-sand club isn't anything to be proud of.
Posts: 1762 | Registered: Apr 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Sweet William: Can you have cable internet without cable TV? I'll have to check on that.
Yes, I have cable internet and not cable tv. I am infinitely happier for not watching tv. There is nothing I miss at all. Occasionally for a while I would try watching tv in hotel rooms when I had to travel for work, just to see what it was my fellow humans found so interesting about it, but each time I came home completely justified. I would flip and flip and flip and waste hours of my precious leisure time watching stuff I didn't even enjoy. I love not having tv!
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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Thank you so much for bringing that up. While you're at it, why don't you give me a nice paper cut and pour some lemon juice on it?
Seriously, I find out more about national and international news here on Hatrack than I do watching the local news. I also listen to public radio. But I don't have it in me to handle caring about every person involved in a catastrophe in our city, much less the nation or the world, so I avoid having those things come into my home when I can't do anything about them. I can't function well for my family when I'm scared, overwhelmed or depressed about the state of the nation.
My theory is if I can't do anything about it, I don't want to know about it. I can't spare the worry.
I'll pay attention to the candidates when it's closer to vote time, and then I'll go find out what they say they stand for. Hopefully I won't have to watch much TV to find that out.
Posts: 1522 | Registered: Nov 2005
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I'm sorry for having given offence. I wasn't arguing that you should watch television (I don't watch much either), only against a blanket boycott on current affairs such as is prescribed for Mormon missionaries (if indeed they aren't even allowed to read newspapers).
Posts: 1762 | Registered: Apr 2006
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It's not a blanket boycott. It's an extremely helpful way to help one focus on non-worldly, spiritual things; a focus which I have never been able to attain in a media-saturated atmosphere.
And it's voluntary.
Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
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Nah, you didn't give offense. I just felt like throwing in a movie quote there, but was too intimidated to put my little winky in a thread with NO GRAEMLINS. It's like they're taboo or something.
I understand not liking the no-newspaper thing for missionaries. I also understand why they make the rule; and really, when anything earth-shattering happens, they find out about it. They don't live in a vacuum. They just need to be able to focus on the work, rather than what masquerades as news sometimes. I mean really, how would knowing about Monica Lewinsky have helped Katharina on her mission? But I understand how that could make one uncomfortable, to think they don't even read the paper.
Posts: 1522 | Registered: Nov 2005
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TV is TV. I don't have one, but I download enough shows that it measures up to having one. I think that the good shows are good, and vast majority are bad, like everything else. Throwing out the genre wholesale seems inappropriate.(My feelings are stronger, but it's a family forum.)
If I walk into a bookstore and pick up the first book my hand finds, it's probably going to be awful, but I think I'd be doing myself a disservice if I stopped reading. In fact, I think it would be bad for the whole world. Music is similar. The same can be said for television. For example, I like Friday Night Lights. I find the characters and story arc well-written and morally engaging. If you are too snobby to give that show a try out of some disdain for the medium, I think that you are missing out. This isn't directed to missionaries, that's a special exception, my comments are directed to this class of haughty crap:
quote: Occasionally for a while I would try watching tv in hotel rooms when I had to travel for work, just to see what it was my fellow humans found so interesting about it, but each time I came home completely justified.
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We were allowed to read USA Today on our preparation day...
SWEET!!
We weren't "allowed" to do lots of things that I went ahead and did anyway. I always got up on time though, but I also ALWAYS passed on companionship inventory (hey, I already knew my companions hated my guts, why did I need to have a prayer first to talk about it?).
I was surprised that Geoff Card was so obedient the he only read his scriptures the whole time. Good boy.
I regularly purchased and read Time magazine. I also had people mail me down tapes of Pat Benatar (audio only). And we always tried to hit some members house on Sunday afternoon to watch Toto videos.
Yeah, I think most of my rule-breaking was rock-music related.
Never went swimming, though. Posts: 524 | Registered: May 2003
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I don't think not having a TV should be a badge of pride, but all people will miss out on good media in their lifetimes simply because there isn't sufficient time to absorb all of the good stuff in the span of a human life. We all have to pick and choose; some people choose to focus on non-video media.
For example, I think anyone who hasn't played Shadow of the Colossus is missing out, but I certainly don't begrudge them for not playing it. I also don't begrudge people who haven't read Peter Watts' Blindsight, even though I think a lot of people ought to read it.
Posts: 10886 | Registered: Feb 2000
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What part of "...I would try watching tv in hotel rooms..." did you miss, Irami? Any disdain for television was bloody well earned by the media ownership.
Sorry, but I also subscribe to being "...too snobby to give that show a try out..." It ain't as if one can miss the commercials promoting the various shows. For me, it'd be like wrinkling my nose at the trailers for Ghostrider, then paying to see the movie anyway.
And yeah, my time is money. Except more valuable: I can always trade my time for more money, while I can't trade my money for more time except in minor ways that I probably shouldn't be indulging myself with. Considering earnings per hour, it's much cheaper for me to spend money for a movie than it is to spend time waiting for commercials to finish.
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You just know Kat is so the naughty librarian. She plays at being all prim and proper, but inside there's this naughty dominatrix waiting to get out.
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I've never really tried to keep up with current television. I hear people talking about what happens in different shows everyday, but I don't really feel like I'm missing out on much.
Part of this is due to time constraints. I like to keep current on what's happening around the world, and to a lesser extent the entertainment world (such as what movies are being made, etc.), but I do this by scanning headlines without actually taking the time to read the articles. There are so many different things to read or keep informed about, and I guess I'd rather have a little knowledge of a lot of things rather than a lot of knowledge on a very limited number of things, of course, a good balance is crucial.
The same is true for movies. I used to watch a lot of movies, but I rarely watch movies anymore. This is partly due to lack of time. And it's not that I don't enjoy watching movies. I find most movies to provide some level of entertainment, it's just that most movies don't sound interesting to me, which doesn't give me much of an incentive to watch them.
Incidentally, I have plenty of time to watch football, baseball, basketball, and sometimes hockey and golf. So I guess time isn't necessarily as big of an issue as I'd like to think. I think a lot of it comes down to how relatable it is. I love playing sports, so I can easily watch others play sports as well. In contrast, I don't very often relate to sitcoms, and reality shows don't seem to reflect anyone's reality, so these don't interest me. I like The Office because I can relate to some of those ideas and characters. That's about the only show that I actually try to regularly watch. Otherwise, I don't really want to give a tv show a weekly commitment if I don't find the subject particularly appealing or interesting. But I would never even think of getting rid of my TV.
Posts: 1256 | Registered: May 2005
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quote:all people will miss out on good media in their lifetimes simply because there isn't sufficient time to absorb all of the good stuff in the span of a human life. We all have to pick and choose; some people choose to focus on non-video media.
I totally agree. How can one ever possibly be "up" in a world full of what our world is full of?
When my companion was sick for a week, I filled my time reading all of the back copies of the "Teachings of the Presidents of the Church" manuals. It was brilliant and enlightening. And if one can fill a week being enlightened by Sunday School manuals, I don't think one need worry about missing out on brilliant media that someone else recommends.
I could fill all of my leisure time with nothing but reading books and would still never read everything I wanted to read. And if books are my preferred medium (being the least manipulative), I see nothing wrong in sacrificing a less-liked medium to them.
Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
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quote:I could fill all of my leisure time with nothing but reading books and would still never read everything I wanted to read. And if books are my preferred medium (being the least manipulative), I see nothing wrong in sacrificing a less-liked medium to them.
While I agree that there is nothing wrong with preferring the written word over other forms of media, it is naive to believe that books are fundamentally less manipulative than other types of media. A well written story can manipulate your thoughts and emotions just as much as a well done video. In fact, books have had a much larger impact on the way I think and feel than any other form of media specifically because they engage my mind and imagination more fully than other types of media.
Posts: 12591 | Registered: Jan 2000
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After not having TV for awhile and then hooking one up again to get the local broadcast channels, mostly what I've found is that there is no time of the day or week that I would rather devote to TV than to practically any of the other activities I enjoy. I found myself feeling about 1/4 "absorbed" in TV when I was watching it.
The news on TV felt totally inefficient as a source of information. They choose the stories for me! What's that all about. How could they possibly know what I'd be interested in? Seems to me they picked wrong on about 80% of it. The weather reports were terribly shallow and I kept wanting to click on the maps to get more detail. Sports...well, let's just say that every second devoted to sports in a newscast is a total waste as far as I'm concerned.
I haven't actually watched a "show" on TV since I hooked the thing up. We're just getting whatever is available broadcast anyway, so it's none of the good cable stuff. I caught a few minutes of golf, about 1/2 hour of the Oscars, and a completely fake-looking decapitation on CSI Miami. I mean really, no blood? What has CSI come to?
Oh well.
I'm sure there are great shows on TV. I loved Serenity. I liked Farscape. I loved MST3K.
But I swear, part of the reason I'm not that interested in TV is that all the stuff I like gets killed off too soon.
Posts: 300 | Registered: Dec 2002
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